Labor’s Bill Shorten speaks during the Friends of the ABC forum in Melbourne on Saturday.
Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

The Labor party has pledged an extra $60m to the ABC and SBS should it win government next week, to boost the production of Australian content.

A week out from the election, the leaders of the two main parties were campaigning in Melbourne, where Scott Morrison also promised $75m in funding to help people return to work after caring for children or elderly parents.

The opposition’s public broadcasting announcement involved $40m for the ABC and $20m for SBS.

This would fund new and existing scripted drama, comedy, children’s and music programs for the ABC, and new shows for the SBS, including drama, documentary, entertainment and factual programs, it said.

“Our national broadcasters contribute to our sense of national identity and reflect our cultural diversity,” a joint statement led by Bill Shorten said.

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“They also play a vital role in supporting Australia’s screen content ecosystem by reinvesting funds into Australia’s independent screen production sector and supporting jobs across Australia.”

“All back, no arguments, save the jobs,” Shorten said in a speech to the Friends of the ABC on Saturday afternoon.

He also signalled plans to extend the terms of funding agreements with the ABC.

“We believe in public broadcasting in this country,” he said.

“I think equally as important, perhaps not as immediately useful to the ABC but I think even more important in the long term, is after speaking to people who care and love the ABC deeply … Michelle Rowland and I are going to make clear today that we want to talk to the board of the ABC, and the new managing director, about five-year funding, not three-year funding. Proper certainty, locked away.”

Labor’s new funding announcement is in addition to almost $20m in previously announced funding promises that included reinstating shortwave radio services in the Northern Territory – axed by the former ABC managing director Michelle Guthrie – as well as a $3m news literacy program to “fight disinformation and fake news”, and $10m for regional news, jobs and emergency broadcasts.

In April the government confirmed in the federal budget that it would stick with the funding freeze introduced by Malcolm Turnbull, but that it would renew ABC’s enhanced news program funding.

Morrison said his $75m package would help 40,000 people wanting to re-enter the workforce after having children or caring for elderly parents. The Mid-Career Checkpoint Program would provide mentoring, coaching and support services to “predominantly women”.

“This program, which ramps up over four years, will support tens of thousands of families with that important decision,” Morrison said. “It is all about connecting them to the choices they want to make and supporting them in the choices they want to make.”

The Labor senator Kristina Keneally later rubbished the announcement, which she said stood in “stark contrast” to Labor’s $4bn childcare package and commitment to universal preschool for three and four-year-olds.

“These are the things that women want and need in order to return to the workforce: help with childcare, help with preschool, a government that gets what it is to be a woman in Australia, to have a family in Australia, and to combine work and family,” she said, dismissing the Coalition announcement as coming “from a desperate PM at the last minute.”

The Nationals deputy leader, Bridget McKenzie, appeared with Morrison and announced $70m in funding for girls’ and regional sport, including $30m to Netball Australia, and $10m towards a 2032 Olympics bid by south-east Queensland.

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Morrison also addressed reports that Labor’s tax plan to hit “the top end of town” by repealing tax cuts for those earning more than $180,000 would affect only 10% of taxpayers. Nine newspapers have reported that the redistribution measure will raise $154bn over 10 years.

The prime minister rejected a suggestion that he had engaged in fear-mongering in suggesting that Labor’s tax plans would affect all Australians, when, according to the costings, 90% would not pay more under Labor.